Q. In what context did Ed Rollins make the remarks about...

Sunday Q&A

Q. In what context did Ed Rollins make the remarks about paying off the black clergy in New Jersey to take a walk on Election Day? Was it a private conversation?

A. Rollins made the remarks at a Sperling Breakfast, a twice-weekly event attended by Washington journalists and sources.

Godfrey Sperling Jr., former Washington bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor, started the breakfasts in 1966, and they've been a Washington institution since.

Through the years, most of the capital's bigwigs have made appearances, and sometimes not without consequences. For a long time, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.) refused to attend, fearing that he would make a mistake ''in a context that is not carefully structured,'' according to aides.

A Christian Science Monitor reporter wrote that Rollins may ''have been trying to boast about his political acumen.''